Saved By The Mad Duke
Chapter 192: Bright Blue Flames

Chapter 192: Bright Blue Flames

Upon hearing his new name, the snow dragon raised his fluffy chin and offered Aideen a rather excited look, his big round eyes sparkling like two gems under the generous rays of the sun. Ahspid stretched his lips into a wide smile and said,

"It looks like he really likes his new name. I think it suits him."

Aideen looked at the happy face of the small creature wrapped in a red scarf and smiled too. If before, this entire situation still remained somewhat surreal and refused to be accepted by both her heart and head, now, she felt a strange yet intimate connection with the dragon and finally saw the reality of things.

At last, she was a weak and powerless princess no more.

Now, she had the powers unknown to others. Now, she had the powers that no one would be able to take away from her.

"You should make it official, My Lady," the mage moved his eyes to the dragon and continued, "Right now, you are practically his mother, therefore, at least according to all the legends I am familiar with, you must make a special bond with him. You are of one flesh and blood, after all."

"A special bond?" Aideen arched her eyebrows in surprise and looked back at Taru who also offered her a perplexed look, "How do I do that?"

Ahspid tried to quickly recall every single book he had read about the snow dragons before explaining, "Give the dragon some of your powers, Your Highness. From now on, Taru will feed on your magic but the first contact is the most important one; it will create the unbreakable "ancestral connection" which means that the creature will become your familiar, for the lack of a better term. He will recognize no one but you both as his master and his family and will never betray you."

"What a heavy responsibility..."

The princess couldn’t help but feel somewhat burdened by the man’s words. Not because she didn’t think she could take care of Taru but because she wasn’t sure whether Taru himself would want that.

Ahspid recognized a tinge of doubt in Aideen’s eyes and offered her a light, reassuring pat on the shoulder, "Do not worry, Your Highness, I am certain that the dragon wants it too. He is now all alone in this world and bonding with you is the only thing left to him now. You must make him feel like he still belongs with someone."

Aideen felt bad that she allowed her insecurities to take over once again. Thus, she nodded her head confidently at the mage and said in a resolute voice,

"You are right. Let’s do this."

Focusing her piercing gaze on the snow dragon, the princess tried to recall everything she felt when Utar gave her his powers. She thought that the process of bonding would be difficult since neither she nor Ahspid knew how it was supposed to be done, however, the moment she thought about Taru, she felt a strange tingling sensation in her arms and palms and only a second later, both of them were surrounded by a thin sparkling veil resembling a magic dance between thousands of tiny snowflakes and the wind.

’It’s working...’ Aideen closed her eyes and tried to memorize the feeling. Despite her current surroundings and the nature of the power, the process felt warm and even somewhat familiar as if she had done it numerous times before.

As her powers continued to flow through the baby dragon’s skin, a distant, low voice jolted the princess from her bliss, ’Master.’

The woman blinked open her eyes and stared down at Taru whose large round eyes now looked sharp and even serious. She heard her own voice inside her head and realized that her lips were not moving.

’Taru?’

That deep and harsh voice couldn’t belong to him; just minutes ago all he could utter was a sole meaningless syllable! And still, she was convinced it was him. With the newly created bond, she could hear his true inner voice as he said once again,

’Thank you for my new name, Master.’

Still bewildered, Aideen wanted to say something else but Taru flapped his wings and flew up, his head now leveled with the head of his new master. He struggled to do it before but now he was able to fly; he really did accept her powers.

Unable to contain her emotions, Aideen released a soft chuckle and patted the dragon on his head which resulted in the big snowflake on his forehead flickering with a light joyous flash.

"Well done, My Lady." Ahspid, too, smiled at the two of them and added, "So, what’s next?"

"We need to return to the castle now, Tilian must be worried sick."

The mage turned around and looked at the distance, "Going through the forest will take us a whole day, if not more."

Aideen shifted her eyes to the tall wall of black trees ahead of them and took a moment to think. Then, she turned back to Ahspid and said, "I think it’s about time we got rid of it. This forest brought us nothing but tragedy and I do not wish for any more of it in the North."

With a subtle smile gracing his lips, the man nodded, took off his black coat, and wrapped it around the princess’ shoulders, "Let’s go home, Your Highness."

***

’It has been two days since we started looking for Lady Valentine but there are no signs of her... Where in the world is she?’

Stanis wiped the sweat off his forehead and took another look around. They have been searching for her everywhere but no matter how hard they looked, the absence of any kind of signs she might have left made them believe that she simply vanished.

Since they did not find Aideen’s dead body, Stanis harbored the hope that she was still alive but he still feared the possibility of her being abducted by someone else. The knight, however, made a wise decision of keeping that thought strictly to himself.

The rest of the Raven knights were less optimistic about their lady’s fate. Sir Nygard couldn’t blame them but the mere thought of the princess being dead was more than just devastating. Watching Tillian’s restless attempts to find her, abandoning food and sleep, continued to shatter his heart.

Duke Valentine did not care for his exhausted condition. He refused to stop even for a single moment and although his aide was concerned about him, he did not dare to even mention his opinion about it.

Stanis lost Bella. He couldn’t allow Tillian to lose Aideen.

At last, their search brought them to the entrance to the Black Forest. Pausing their horses before the enormous wall of dead trees, they all looked at it with a hint of despair in their eyes and Sir Nygard finally mustered the courage to say,

"Your Grace... If she went there alone, the chances of us finding her alive are next to none."

Tillian tightened his grip on the leather reins of his horse, a deep wrinkle forming between his eyebrows as he gritted his teeth in response,

"If she died there, I will find her body. Until then, she is alive. The search continues either way."

"Yes, Your Grace."

Stanis nudged his horse on the sides to make it move but the animal refused. Surprised, he nudged it again but the horse took a few steps back instead. To everybody’s shock, all the horses did the same.

"What is going on? They don’t react like that even when the beasts are approaching."

Tillian took a quick look around to make sure they were not surrounded when he heard one of his knights shouting,

"Your Grace, the forest!"

Turning his head back to the Black Forest, the duke widened his eyes in shock –– in a mere second, as if by magic, every single dead tree caught fire and the entire forest drowned in bright blue flames.